CA power prices up 59 percent after nuke shutdown

San Diego 
Federal number crunchers say the shutdown of the seaside San Onofre nuclear plant is partially to blame for a 59 percent increase in wholesale electricity prices for California during the first half of the year.

The Energy Information Administration says the closure also caused a "large and unusual separation" in power prices between the northern and southern parts of the state. Southern California prices were much higher.

Agency spokesman M. Tyson Brown says the main reason for the increase is the rebound in historically low natural gas prices. Natural gas generation is California's principal source of electricity.